Various varieties of cheese are shipped in large containers from a cheese production site to different sites for further processing and repackaging into smaller packages for retail and wholesale sales and distribution. These shipping containers are relatively large rectangular-shaped wooden boxes approximately eight inches deep and thirty-two by twenty-eight inches in dimension. The cheese is sealed in a tough plastic wrap prior to placement in the shipping container and will settle during shipment to an extent that it conforms and presses tightly against the sides of the container.
These blocks of cheese weigh approximately two hundred pounds and are difficult to remove from the shipping containers without damaging the container and/or cheese due to the weight of the cheese and container, and because the cheese has expanded against the sides of the container, rigidly securing the cheese inside of the container. Heretofore, two men were required to remove these blocks of cheese from the container. The men would manually turn the container upside down and then by pounding the container sides and bottom with rubber mallets would eventually loosen the cheese causing it to drop from the container. Such removal method resulted in high labor cost and was time consuming and difficult.
Therefore, the need has existed for an improved machine which automatically removes the blocks of cheese from such containers in a simple, economic and efficient manner without damaging the container and cheese removed therefrom.